Improvement in pyrotechnic signals



H. J. HARRIS.

Pyrotechnic Signal;

No, 82,619. Patented Sept. 29. 1868.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

H. J. HARRIS, OF SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA.

IMPROVEMENT lN PYROTECHNIC SIGNALS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 82,619, dated September 29, 1868.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, H. J. HARRIS, of Shreveport, parish of (Jaddo, and vState of Louisiana,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Signalizing Trail- Fuse for attachin g to balloons, &c.; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making a part of this specification, in which Figure 1 represents a balloon with my improved trail-match attached. Fig. 2 represents the trail -match, and Fig. 3 represents the bursting of one of the pyrotechnic balls after it has been separated from the trail-match.

My invention consists of a new and useful device for signaling between points that are so remote from each other that the ordinary methods cannot be made available, or where the conformation of the intervening country is such that the view is obstructed from the highest point that can be reached by me, where, by my invention, I can accomplish the desired end.

Frequently it is necessary to convey information both by land and water when I have made no previous preparation, and, from the nature of the case, could have made none. As, for instance, on the field of battle, where the positions of the two contending armies are continually shifting over an area of many miles square, important battles have been lost from the inability of commanders to control the movement of an army, particularly during the night, the circumstances of the case, such as reaching the position after nightfall, and a lack of an intimate acquaintance with topography of the country, rendering the ordinary signal-corps entirely unavailable, and the conveyance of orders by orderlies extremely difficult and uncertain. J usthere my invention steps in and proves itself a great desideratum, for, by its use, signals can be made with unerring precision, high enough up to be seen from any part of the field, entirely out of the reach of the enemy, and easily understood by friends.

Having thus explained the nature of my invention, I will proceed to give a description of it with reference to the drawing, so as to enable others to manufacture and use the same.

A is a balloon which I inflate by rarefied air in any usual manner, care being taken to provide for keeping it at a proper elevation during the time necessary to deliver its signal. Attached to the balloon is the trail match or fuse, which answers the double purpose of carrying the signals up into the air and dropping them at the proper intervals after they shall have attained the requisite height, and also of firing them as they part company, in the manplosion. By adopting a system similar to that used in telegraphy, where they read by sound, or by firing balls of different colors alternately and in varying combination, messages may be transmitted with rapidity and accuracy.

I am well aware that time-fuses are used in blasting and in the manufacture of fireworks, but there is this important difference, that mine, in addition'to firing the balls, meteors, &c., at intervals which are regulated for a definite purpose, are dropped from the balloon for safety, the distance to which they shall drop and the length of time required being regulated and adjusted as may be required.

This same arrangement may be ,advantageously used in making pyrotechnic displays.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The trail match or fuse constructed substantially as described-that is to say, consisting of the slow match or fuse provided with a series of signal or cannonading balls, pyrotechnic meteors, and streamers, or other equivalent devices, connected with the slow match by short-branch quick matches or fuses, and adapted to be used in connection with the balloon or other equivalent means for elevating and sustaining the same in the air while firing the same, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof witness my hand this 22d day of August, 1868. 1

. H. J. HARRIS.

Witnesses:

RUFUS R. Rnonns, ALEX. MAHoN. 

